The upside to downtime

Plus, a fun reminder of new playgrounds from 2024 with OCParentGuide

Are you embracing some downtime? We call them “down days” not in an emotional sense, but in opposition to those high energy, high socializing, big activities days. After all that up, up, up — we naturally seek out the down time. As a family, we learned to know when pressure was building up and needing to release it before it exploded — so we made sure we scheduled pockets of time and even full days for downtime whenever possible.

It’s a wellness practice that continues to this day and gives us lots of peace for a reset. Yesterday and today have been down days for me. Yes, I’m still here writing you a note and email — but our home is quiet and it gives me joy to connect with you silently through my keyboard to your inbox.

Wishing you a Happy New Year! Next newsletter coming your way on Friday, January 3rd.

See you in 2025,
Michele

As a friendly reminder, make sure you ALWAYS check official sources when you are heading out to any of the locations I share. These are merely suggestions. Only you know what works for your family. Plus, your experience may not be the same as mine — and there can be changes to the hours or unforeseen circumstances or conditions at the suggested locations.

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New OC playgrounds of 2024

It’s happening again! Remember when Heather of OCParentGuide and I combined our efforts to bring you all the best of the new playgrounds of 2023? Well, we thought you might want a fun reminder of what parks were new as of 2024! Here’s Part 1 of the Instagram post — if you want to see a video version.

In the meantime, I put all of the new playgrounds from 2023 and from Part 1 of 2024 into a blog post so you can get all the info and learn from all the blog posts in one place.

You can also follow us at OCPlayParks and OCParentGuide on Instagram to be the first to see Part 2! I will update 2024 Part 2 section of the blog post once we release it on social media.

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PLAY: “Watch more sunsets”

This is the section of the newsletter where we talk about PLAY or connecting to nature each week. I might share a video, an article, a book, or something inspiring. Just trying to help keep you empowered to prioritize play to benefit development and preserve childhood!

Our family started a tradition of watching the last sunset of the old year (on New Year’s Eve) followed by the first sunset of the new year (on New Year’s Day) — and as many as we can catch in between! Steal the idea if it sounds fun to you!

This sunset appreciation spilled over onto Instagram where I started a tradition of inviting you to experience every sunset during the month of September along with me. It has had the unexpected — and deeply gratifying — impact of friends and strangers sending me sunset photos to appreciate with them. Even when it’s NOT September. I couldn’t love it more!

This may be how it all started? Excerpt from a special January 2010 blog post:

“Watch more sunsets” is my 8 year old son’s goal for 2010. Along with “play outdoors more” and “read 1000 books.” Man, how come I didn’t think of those?

Contrary to what you might believe, we don’t talk too much about play. We just do it.

So no one was more surprised than my husband and me to see our parental enthusiasm for the outdoors actually rub off on our kids. It happened naturally. Our son simply translated our actions into words and made goals for his own outdoor experiences.

He let us know loud and clear that he wants to do more and we’re happily obliging him. It’s January 11th and I’d say we’ve watched about 10 out of the 11 sunsets this year. Many times it’s just from the car or a glance up into the sky from home, but we acknowledge it all the same with a pause in our daily routine and an “oooh” or “aaaah.” We marvel at how different it looks from the night before.

We ventured to the bluffs above the Pacific to experience a true beach and ocean sunset. It was amazing. My photos don’t do it justice. We can’t wait to gaze in wonder at the next 354 sunsets of the year. I hope, wherever you live, you get a chance to look towards the horizon at sunset and say “Wow!”

Epilogue: That little eight year old boy is now a 23 year old man who: is a soil scientist, often spends work days outdoors, has read well over 1000 books in his lifetime, and still takes time to share sunsets with his family.

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Tiny Hike Teaser: Mini Trail Guide #54 is the last of the WEEKLY mini trail guides, but never fear because the guidebooks are coming next year! I know it’s just barely winter, but I’m going to close out fall with a fun romp through sycamore leaves on the trail and morning light highlighting the orange and golds! It’s all below the paywall below.

OC Tiny Hikes subscriptions are changing for 2025!

I put a fun explainer at the start of Trail Guide #51, if you want to know all about the new downloadable, printable seasonal guidebooks coming to ANNUAL subscribers in 2025! Read ALL about it over on Substack!

Your support is always appreciated and never taken for granted! Thank you!